Tennessee Titans: Running Back Controversy Grows Thicker in Win over Colts

Despite getting a much needed win over the woeful Indianapolis Colts earlier today, the concern with Chris Johnson continued to grow as he barely eclipsed 30 yards rushing against the NFL's next to last rush defense.

In fact, Javon Ringer ended up stealing carries towards the end of the game and he looked more like the $50 million running back as opposed to Johnson.

Much like the first three wins for the Titans this season, they won today despite of Johnson and not because of him. That's not a good thing for the franchise when they owe this guy the money that the Titans do over the next five seasons.

Once again we saw a hesitant Johnson getting the ball in the backfield. He looked to be running with virtually no confidence, field vision or determination.

Ringer looked like the hungrier player today and that's what you want out of your players. Forget who has more talent or more speed—in the end what you really want is brute confidence and determination.

It's almost come to the point that Johnson chooses one part of the field to run to, and if it's not there then he's going down. His elusiveness has almost disappeared.

It may have been subtle, but Mike Munchak in effect benched Johnson today in favor of Ringer. The result of that was a rushing average of over four yards a carry for Ringer, which is right around his career average.

In contrast, Johnson averaged a modest 2.4 yards per carry today with the same amount of carries as Ringer.

According to cbssports.com wire reports, Munchak claimed that there was nothing to the switch after the game, saying that he was just rotating players. That's what you would expect him to say to avoid controversy.

The damage may already be done when it comes to Johnson's ego. He made high claims about his abilities during his highly-publicized holdout.

The bottom line is he hasn't even come close to delivering.

You can blame the offensive line all you want, but the unit has been nothing short of superb in pass protection for Matt Hasselbeck. Blaming the line for Johnson's struggles is a huge reach.

Now you have to wonder what Munchak will decide to do going forward with his two running backs. What he should do is start using a running back by committee system, but things aren't that simple when you're dealing with a player that has such a hefty contract.

If the Titans are going to win the AFC South then Johnson is going to have to dramatically improve. He's going to keep getting his touches no matter how bad he performs, and getting almost no production on first down time and time again can't continue.

As great as Hasselbeck has been, no one is going to confuse this Titans team with being a great passing offense. They can move the chains through the air when they need to with guys like Nate Washington and Jared Cook, but they're not built to be a vertical team.

The most important thing about today was getting what was arguably a must-win for the Titans, but this controversy is only going to get worse until Johnson lives up to his lofty expectations he put on himself.